Author's Note: This chapter took way longer than I would like to be published. This is due to the fact that I have been incredibly busy the past couple of days, and have not really had time to write, and I apologize for it. Luckily, however, I now have an abundance of time to write, so those of you who are following along can expect and increased number of chapters of the next couple of days. So, now, on to the chapter!
Solus lay on the cool, fresh, grass by the stream. The water flowed softly and crickets chirped together, their many voices filling the shadowy night. The firebender had, upon vomiting profusely, fallen into a blurred semi-asleep state, his thoughts only partially coherent.
The lack of rest for the past week and the swift traveling he had undertaken had rendered the young man extremely exhausted, but deep sleep did not come easily to him. Instead, his dreams were vivid, of fire and blood mixed with the tiny songs of a thousand insects. Every now and then, a plopping sound would come from the swiftly moving creek as fish leapt from it's watery confines.
Solus did not know how long he had been there, for there was no indication of the passing of time, only the combined symphony of crickets and fish, brook and wind-blown trees. He eventually was made aware of the fact that he was not in solitude, and that there was someone, or perhaps something, that shared the small grassy bank with him. Eventually, it spoke.
"Solus? Is that you?" Came the calm voice, violently ushering the firebender out of his dream-laden trance and into the moonlit world of the waking.
With a shout, he reached for the sword that lay next to him and pulled it from it's sheath. Luckily, the swordsman had taken the necessary precautions to clean the weapon before he had succumbed to his slumber, so that while it was not as sharp as it could be, the weapon came smoothly out of it's container, no trace of the prior incident on the polished steel.
Blinking sleep from his eyes, he waved the sword haphazardly into the night.
"Ehhh? Who's there?" the question was very slightly slurred, the exhaustion not yet leaving the startled firebender.
"Solus, it's me." a light flared up, causing shadows to spring up all around the clearing. "It's Zuko."
As his eyes adjusted to the light, Solus realized that the speaker was indeed Zuko, his friend, and his target.
"Zuko?" he began, his tone confused. "I thought I was supposed to be following you…"
"You should probably sit down." his friend said calmly. "And explain why you were following me and why you were laying by a stream next to a puddle of what looks to be vomit."
The swordsman sheathed his weapon, and sat down heavily on the soft green ground. Slowly, he began to relate the tale of how he had ended up in this position, from Iroh asking the young firebender to follow his nephew, to the incident in the city, and now his unplanned nap beside the stream.
"... and that is how I ended up here." Solus finished, finally feeling fully awake. "Wherever here is."
"I see." mused Zuko, his arms crossed thoughtfully, before preempting the question he could see his friend beginning to ask. "Kuzon is roosting in that tree over there."
The seated bender nodded, and then began his next question.
"Well, now that I have finally caught up to you, where exactly are we going?"
"I have been following my own prey, believe it or not." the scarred firebender paused, watching as his friend looked up expectantly. "Azula seems to have found a new toy." he gestured to the massive strip of overturned earth that had gone previously unnoticed by the other firebender. "I was following her when I saw someone asleep by the stream. You."
Solus nodded, realizing that he must have passed the Prince in his hurry to get away from the gruesome spectacle he had left in the Earth Kingdom village. Standing, he picked up what belongings he had with him and stood next to his friend, who had begun to do the same.
"I do not have any desire to sleep anymore tonight. The sun should rise soon." the bender stated, despite the dark circle underneath his eyes. His companion nodded, and together they leapt up onto the back of the ostrich horse that had been waiting in the clearing.
They rode swiftly, not pausing to eat or drink, watching as the sun rose above the grassy plains the tracks now cut across. The breeze pulled at the hems of their clothing, as it gusted across the open lands. Ahead of them, a column of smoke had begun to show against the blue of the clear morning sky and Zuko finally broke the silence.
"I know how you feel." he turned slightly, noticing the sidelong glance his friend was giving him. "Killing someone else."
"When?" the response was simple and quiet, barely audible against the combined sounds of the ostrich horse and the other, softer sounds of morning.
"When those pirates blew up the ship." the Prince began haltingly. "They didn't just blow up the ship. They sent people after me and I was practicing my firebending at the time. I cut down at least two before the rest decided to just destroy the entire ship."
Solus nodded, the wind tousling his hair slightly as they rode.
"I never told you or Uncle, and only focused on revenge." Zuko continued. "My rage made me powerful. I thought admitting that killing bothered me would be seen as weakness."
"We would have understood." the other firebender replied, before amending his statement. "Or at least, your Uncle would have. Not sure about me, until now." he frowned, looking up to see Kuzon circling in the sky above them, reassuring himself that his hawk was still there.
The silence resumed, and the ostrich horse ran on. It ran unfalteringly, and the group finally came to a pine tree shrouded clearing. The massive machine that they had been following sat there, crouching like a menacing beast that could pounce on them at any moment. It was quiet, as though slumbering, with any crew either gone or otherwise engaged. Dismounting, the scarred firebender followed his friend, who had proven over time to be the more adept tracker.
"What do you see?" the Prince asked, crossing his arms in front of him as his companion knelt in the grass.
"There is white fur here. Some kind of animal." he paused, his eyes searching the crushed grass for more clues. "There were multiple people here, and three…"
Solus frowned, the hand he had used to point out the curious tracks falling to his sides.
"Lizards. Mongoose lizards. They are mounted, but they split up." he gestured to the trail of white fur that led off into the dark green trees. "One went that way, the other two seemed to follow some other path."
"My sister" Zuko stated, the distaste apparent on his marred face. "She would be the one to split up."
The other bender nodded, standing slowly from his crouched position, and turning towards the Prince.
"What do you want to do?"
"I will follow Azula and take the horse." the scarred bender frowned before continuing. "You will follow the other tracks. I didn't see them when I first spotted Azula, so we don't know what to expect."
Solus nodded, and turned down the path the two mongoose lizards had taken between the lofty pines. His pace was swift, a constant jog pounding the uneven turf as he followed the large tracks. Kuzon swooped down, flying low over the ground beside him and the two continued.
They can't have gotten very far. Solus thought, just as he crested a small ridge and beheld a sight that proved his suspicions correct. Two vaguely familiar looking red-clad women were attacking two even more familiar looking blue-clad Southern Water Tribe children.
The Avatar's companions! the firebender was surprised to see them again, having not encountered them in a matter of months. So that is where the fur is from… he thought as the massive flying bison, the one that the three fugitives had traveled with, bellowed from the opposite riverbank.
The lone bender sighed. He realized that he had a very limited range of options as to reaching the other bank of the wide river and the fastest one was not something Solus had very much practice with.
Breathing inward deeply and starting to run towards the river, the young man moved his hands to his sides, palms parallel to the ground and perpendicular to his body. Exhaling deeply as he reached the near bank, still moving swiftly, he channeled his chi downwards from the palm each hand. Torrents of flame leapt from his outstretched hands, catapulting Solus across the wide waters of the slow-moving river.
As he neared the apex of his short-lived flight, the firebender extinguished the flames and silently thanked his teacher.
I will have to thank Iroh in person later for teaching me how to do that. he decided as the opposite bank of the river rushed towards him.
Breaking into a roll as he hit the ground, Solus was able to stand swiftly and turn to face the still-engaged combatants as the bison let loose a massive blast of air, throwing the two Fire Nation women into the lazily moving water.
Moving swiftly towards the two seemingly incapacitated Southern Water Tribe members, the sword-bearing bender raised his hands in a gesture of peace.
"Oh no, not you again!" shouted the girl, her hands stuck with what appeared to be small knives to the trunk of a large tree.
"Not looking for trouble, just passing through." Solus' reply was non confrontal, his hands still raised in the air. "Following the other two. Not you."
The Water Tribe warrior shouted out from his prone position, apparently incapable of movement.
"Oh yeah? If you aren't, then help us!"
"I, uh, er-" the young bender stammered, before sighing and lowering his arms. "Okay then."
He moved towards the girl, giving a bemused look to the stunned boy who still lay on the ground. Reaching the tree where the waterbender was stuck, the firebender pulled the small knives from the tree, marveling at how familiar they seemed to him.
As the Water Tribe bender he had just freed from the tree stared at him warily, the Fire Nation youth put the small weapons into his pocket, before resuming his jog after the two women who had been washed down the river.
As he neared the area where the two oddly familiar looking red wearing people had pulled themselves ashore, he froze as their faces finally came into view.
"Ty Lee!? Mai!?" Solus narrowed his eyes, suspecting deception. It had been years since he had seen the two, not since Zuko had been banished from the Fire Nation.
The figures on the riverbank looked up in surprise, not expecting to hear their names spoken in such a foreign land.
"Solus?" the girl with the longer, singularly braided hair replied in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Why would anyone want to be here?" the other girl replied, in a voice that clearly relayed her feelings about the Earth Kingdom.
Solus sat near them, frowning as Kuzon soared to a nearby pine tree, perched on the end of one of it's many boughs.
"I could ask you two the same, Ty Lee." he replied evenly, still suspicious of the situation.
"Princess Azula asked us to help her." Ty Lee answered cheerily, her usual demeanor present despite their obvious defeat. "To find her Uncle. I don't think she mentioned you though, Solus. I thought you were traveling with Prince Zuko?"
"I am, though I dont't think you are going in the right direction to find General Iroh." he said, saying little of his affiliation with the Prince. "Did you have a run in with our friend the Avatar?" the firebender asked, beginning to relax slightly as the two did not appear to have any desire to attack him.
"She decided to follow him when we left Omashu." Mai was the one to speak now, her tone sour. "Those two were hardly a challenge, and Azula decided to follow the Avatar."
"That reminds me, Mai." the young bender reached into one of his pockets, tossing the knives lightly to the unhappy knifethrower. "I think these belong to you."
When his childhood friend only nodded, Solus turned to face Ty Lee and smiled ruefully.
"Sorry, I don't have any knives for you." he said dryly.
The acrobat stared at Solus briefly before laughing. The three Fire Nation adolescents then stood in unison, watching as the sun began to dip below the green, forested horizon. In the tall pine trees near the lazily flowing river in the Southern Earth Kingdom, a bird screeched as they began walking back the way all three had come.
After Note: That was of a pretty average length. I think that will likely be the norm for most of the chapters I publish, at least for book two, and I like the approximately four page length that this one is. This chapter took longer than I expected to actually write out, which I think is because I need time to get back into the swing of things. Like I said, however, there should be a fair amount of chapters published in the next week or so, and this is only a taste of what is to come. So, I hoped you liked the chapter, and if so, that you consider leaving a favorite, a review, or a subscription!